hacking away

Last night, somewhere between the second bottle of something I wasn’t drinking and a cream-topped dessert that I was eagerly awaiting, our dinner party hostess decided we were ready. “Kate,” she said, halting the buzzing table conversation with the precision of someone who hosts a podcast show (P.S. hers is top rated!). “Tell us the one thing we should be doing for longevity.”

Kate—Kate Tolo, to be exact—didn’t flinch, which already tells you something about her. Despite being 30 years old, she has the composure of someone who has spent a lifetime reading medical studies, and, more importantly, deciding which ones actually matter. This assuredness tracks with her burgeoning career: she’s an Australian-Bosnian entrepreneur and the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Blueprint, Don’t Die, and Immortals, ventures she built alongside her boyfriend, Bryan Johnson. He’s the American tech entrepreneur turned longevity obsessive who spends, depending on which headline you read, something like $2 million a year on an extreme, data-driven pursuit of reversing his biological age—and, ultimately, not dying.

Kate clarified—with a flicker of humor—that while she doesn’t share her boyfriend’s goal of “not dying,” she is very much invested in her own longevity. Clutching her nearly empty water glass, she admitted she’d been vegan until recently, almost apologizing for it. Then, in her thick Australian accent, she answered the question we were all dying to hear.

“Eight hours of sleep,” she said. “Every night.”

There was a small, almost audible deflation around the table—like a “huh” that escapes when the answer is both obvious and inconvenient. No esoteric supplement to order, no cold plunge to install, no life-upending routine to adopt. Just sleep. The most democratic of prescriptions, and maybe the one we are collectively worst at honoring.

She explained it simply, which made it feel more authoritative. There are these cells—she named them in a way that begged to be Googled, which I appreciated—that do their most important work at night. While we are sleeping, they move through the body, identifying and clearing out damaged, potentially pre-cancerous cells. It is a kind of housekeeping, invisible and essential. But if we don’t give them enough time—if we cut the night short, or fracture it—they have to reprioritize. They handle the urgent, the immediate, and they shelve the long-term fight.

“And you don’t want them pivoting like that,” she said.

What the body loves, she added, is consistency. Going to bed at roughly the same time: her boyfriend hits the sack at 8:30PM every night, which perhaps explained why he wasn’t sitting next to her at the dinner table, and, oh, he eats all his meals before 11AM anyway.

Fortunately for me, the one thing I already do without trying too hard (perhaps thanks to this) is go to bed early—I love it, and I love waking up early too. It was oddly reassuring to hear that sleep might be enough. It also put some breathing room from the perfectionistic performance of wellness, which, frankly, has become its own kind of exhaustion (me over here currently trying to adopt this, this and these).

After the dinner party, newly mindful of “not dying,” I found myself pulling on a pair of my one and only organic pajamas, when my half-sister—visiting from London, jet-lagged but determined—wandered into my closet. “Oh my goodness,” she said, pulling out a TWP top (below) I’ve had for years, something slightly frivolous and entirely joyful. “You still have this. I remember you wearing this in New York.”

It struck me, standing there, that there is a kind of sartorial longevity that mirrors what Kate was talking about. The preservation of what stands the test of time. I suppose I’m learning, as I get older, what my version of “eight hours of sleep” is in a wardrobe. The things that restore/support me, reliably. Bodies, closets—both, it turns out, thrive with a little loyalty!

Now, naturally, I am going to segue into some new longevity hacks for our closet, starting with Chanel’s recently launched Coco Crush choker necklace and Coco Crush Premiere Iconic chain watch, above and below. Talk about forever pieces—with endless pass-it-down possibilities!

More closet lifers: TKEES ankle-strap sandals, the spot-on blue Asos anorak, a black leather Mulberry clutch, Quince sunglasses, the striped Ralph Lauren tuxedo blouse, a silk Prada scarf, Mansur Gavriel ballerina flats, an A.W.A.K.E. Mode trench jacket (on sale!), the beaded Asos tank, a Cos linen tuxedo blazer, and lace Reformation shorts. You can expect forever-keepers to come from me with time. In the meantime, get some sleep!